Fine wire winding device

ABSTRACT

In the fine wire winding device of this invention, wire is wound by a spool with a constant tension. A guide pulley for feeding the length of wire to a spool is arranged to follow a wire winding point on the spool with a space and move in parallel with said point with a predetermined inclination, in such a manner that the wire to be wound forms a predetermined angle with respect to the wire already wound by the spool. Control means is also provided for mechanically reversing the direction of movement of the guide pulley when the wire winding point approaches the ends of the spool, so that the guide pulley may reciprocate to effect the wire winding operation in the reverse direction.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Takashi Nognchi Sagamihara-shi; Tadakazu Chida, Tokyo, Japan [2]] App]. No. 794,721

[22] Filed Jan. 28, 1969 [45] Patented Feb. 23, 1971 [73] Assignee Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd.

Kawasaki-shi, Japan [3 2] Priority Jan. 31, 1968 [54] FINE WIRE WINDING DEVICE AND POWER SOURCE l8 Primary ExaminerNathan L. Mintz Attorney Flynn & Frishauf ABSTRACT: In the fine wire winding device of this invention, wire is wound by a spool with a constant tension. A guide pulley for feeding the length of wire to a spool is arranged to follow a wire winding point on the spool with a space and move in parallel with said point with a predetermined inclination, in such a manner that the wire to be wound forms a predetermined angle with respect to the wire already wound by the spool. Control means is also provided for mechanically reversing the direction of movement of the guide pulley when the wire winding point approaches the ends of the spool, so that the guide pulley may reciprocate to effect the wire winding operation in the reverse direction.

' PATENTEnFmm SHEET 10F 3 H'FIGL POWER SOURCE CONTROL MEANS -FI,G.V4'

PATENTEUFEBZBISYI I 3 5 5 357 sum 2 UF 3 TO MOTOR 7? AND POWER SOURCE l8 TO POWER SOURCE l8 FINE WIRE WINDING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an improved fine wire winding device and more particularly to such a device suitable for relatively fine wire.

A wire winding device of this nature generally comprises means for transferring wire, means for rotating a spool for winding the wire, and a guide means having a guide pulley which reciprocates in the direction of the axis of the spool and which guides the winding of the wire on the spool. The traverse of the pulley is effected by a heart cam, lead screw with reversed rotations, or an endless belt. For successive winding of wire on the spool, the forcedly transverse action of the pulley with respect to the spool cooperates with the winding action of the spool. As the wire winding operation progresses, the wire winding speed becomes high if the spool is rotated at a fixed speed, owing to the fact that the thickness of the wire wound on the spool in the form of layers becomes large. For this reason, a slipping means is interposed between the spool a nd a shaft for rotating the spool to avoid an increase in the wire winding speed. As a result, the cooperation between the winding action of the spool and the guide means is not made accurately thus resulting in an insufficient orderly winding operation.

It has also been difficult to cause the wire to sufficiently engage the surfaces of flanges disposed on both ends of the spool at every direction reversing operation for winding the wire. In other words, it has been difficult to arrange the guiding pulley to reciprocate in such a manner that it causes the wire to fit the flange surfaces of a spool, since the distance between the flange surfaces is dependent more or less upon each spool.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide a fine wire winding device having a guide means in which a guide pulley is so arranged as to follow a wire to be wound on a spool in a direction parallel to that in which the wound wire advances on the spool and with a specified space always kept from the winding point. The guide pulley also defines a certain angle or inclination to the axis of the spool, as viewed from a horizontal plane.

Another object of this invention is to provide a fine wire winding device in which the direction of inclination of a guide pulley can be mechanically reversed at every reversing point of its reciprocation in such a manner that a wire can be wound on a spool with close engagement with the flanges of the spool.

Stated in detail, a motor which rotates the spool is controlled such that the wire can be wound by the spool under a constant tension. The guide means of this invention comprises a guide shaft which cooperates with a shaft for rotating the spool with a predetermined speed reduction ratio, and is provided with a roller which is adapted to rotate in engagement with the outer surface of the guide shaft. A frame supporting said roller is moved along the axial direction of the guide shaft when the roller engages the guide shaft with inclination. The frame has a guide pulley which is operative on the same plane as that of said roller, said guide pulley guiding the wire onto the spool. Said roller is thus moved with a delayed phase with the advancement of winding of the wire, so that the guide pulley is also moved or reciprocated in parallel with the axis of the spool but with a certain inclination thereto.

This can be explained by way of the following mathematical expressions. Assuming that the velocity of advancement of wire winding point in the axial direction of the spool is Vw (mm./min.), the diameter of the wire is 11 (mm.) and that the number of rotation of the spool is N (r.p.m.), the following equation holds.

Vw (TN 1 If the roller engages the guide shaft with an inclination 0, the surface velocity of the roller can be expressed by v'cos0 where v (mm/min.) is the surface velocity of the guide shaft, so that the velocity Vr of movement of the guide roller is If the diameter of the guide shaft is denoted by D (mm.) and the number of rotation thereof by n (r.p.m.).

v 'rr'D'n 3 Since Vw Vr when the guide pulley follows with an inclination 6 the wire winding point on the spool with a space, the following equation holds from the equations 1 and 2.

sin 20= (4) By substituting this with equation 3 2d-N 2 d N 51121 207 :X' X

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the fine wire winding device of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a guide means and a wire winding means of the device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation taken along a line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of a transfer means for a guide pulley in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 5 is a section taken along a line 5-5 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a modification of a position control means for the pulley shown in FIG. 2',

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic plans for explaining a wire winding operation in connection with a spool; and

FIG. 8 is a section taken along a line 8-8 in FIG. 7B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, a wire 10 is advanced in the direction of an arrow a by a pair of rollers 11 is wound by a spool of a winding means 14 through a pair of guide pulleys 12 and a guide pulley of a guide means 13. A dancer pul ley 15 is interposed between said guide pulleys 12 to apply a tension to the wire by the action of its own weight and a weight w connected to the dancer pulley and is swingably supported by an arm 15a having its one end pivotally supported. A detecting means 16, for example, a potentiometer, connected to said arm 15a detects the movement of said arm 15a and conveys its detected information to a control means 17 which transmits its output signal to an actuating source (power source) 18 for said spool. More in detail, the detecting means 16 detects the difference between the feeding speed and winding speed, so that the control means 17 acts to reduce the difference to zero. Thus, a variation in the tension given to the wire is represented by a variation in the position of the dancer pulley 15 with respect to the vertical direction, and the signal representing said latter variation is feedbacked to the power source 18, so that the wire may be wound by the spool under constant tension. Said guide means 13 and winding means 14 are detailed below with reference mainly to FIG. 2.

On a base 19 are mounted a pair of spaced, upright supporting brackets 20 one having a shaft 21 movable in the axial direction thereof and the other having a rotatable shaft 22. One end of each of said shaft 21 and rotatable shaft 22 is tapered so that the tapered or conical ends of the shafts 21 and 22 are spaced in alignment with each other. Said conical ends carry therebetween a spindle 23 provided on its outer circumferential surface with a spool 24 for winding wire. The spool 24 has flanges 24a and 24b. The flange 24a is in face contact with a securing member 25 mounted on the rotatable shaft 22 at one end thereof and theother flange 24b is fastened by a nut 26 which threadedly engages the threads 23a of the spindle 23. In order to avoid slipping of the flange 24a from the securing member, a projection 25a may be formed on the securing member 25 so that its forward end is insertedly received in the body of the flange 24a.

On the rotatable shaft 22 is mounted, at a portion closer to the outer end thereof, a pulley 28 through a brake drum 27. Said pulley 28 is connected to a DC motor 31 through an endless V-shaped belt 29 and a pulley 30, so that the driving power of the motor 31 is given to the spool 24 through the shaft 22.

A further pair of upright supporting brackets 32 are mounted on the base 19 in parallel with the axis of the spindle 23. Between the supporting brackets 32 is supportedly and rotatably mounted a guide axis 33 in parallel with the axis of the spindle 23. Two spindles 34 are also bridged between the supporting brackets 32 in parallel with said guide axis 33. One end of the guide axis 33 extends outwardly through one of the supporting brackets 32 and is connected through a friction coupling 35 with a disc 37 forming a part of a gearless speed change device 36. A supporting bracket 38 is provided facing to the disc 37 and carries a rotatable shaft 39 having its one end connected to a disc 40 which is in parallel with said disc 37. The shaft 33 carrying the disc 36 and the shaft 39 carrying the disc 40 are spaced from each other and the both discs are arranged to hold therebetween a friction roller 41 (FIG. 3) which is rotated by friction. The friction roller 41 is connected to the lower end of a shaft 44 rotatably supported by an arm 43 extending from the supporting platform 42, the upper end of said shaft 44 being connected to a handle 45.

At a position closer to the handle 45, a disc 46 is mounted on the shaft 44 to face a graduated plate 47 connected to the arm 43. Said discs 37 and 40 and the roller 41 thus form the gearless speed change device 36.

On the opposite end of the shaft 39 is mounted a toothed wheel 48 which is meshed with a toothed wheel 49 mounted on the other end of said shaft 22. The motor 31 thus causes the disc 40 to be rotated through the toothed wheels 49 and 48. The rotation of the disc 40 is transmitted to the disc 37 through the roller 41, thereby to rotate the guide axis 33. In transmission of rotation, the handle 45 may be operated to vertically move the roller 41, so that the radius of rotation of each disc 40, 37 with respect to the roller 41 is changed to vary the number of rotations. Accordingly, the reduction ratio between the rotational speed of the spool 24 and the number of rotations of the guide axis 33 can be applied to gearless speed control.

A transfer means 50 for the guide pulleys will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The reference numeral 51 indicates a frame having a substantially letter L-shaped cross section. The frame 51 is carried by a pair of bearings 52 mounted on said pair of spindles 34 so as to be slidable thereon in the direction of the axes thereof. The frame 51 has a laterally extending portion 51a which is in parallel with the surface of the base 19. The laterally extending portion 510 has in its central portion a circular through bore 52 whose diameter is increased at its upper portion to receive a pair of bearings 53. The bearings 53 rotatably support a shaft 54 whose upper diameter is increased and which is provided with grooves 54a and 54b formed in the surface of the both ends thereof.

The numeral 55 designates a holder having a substantially letter Lshaped cross section. From the vertical wall of the holder 55 is projected a pin 56 upon which a guide roller 57 is rotatably mounted in such a manner that the guide roller 57 lies in a plane which intersects the axis of the shaft 54. A column 58 having a square cross section projects upwardly from the upper surface of the laterally extending wall of the holder 55. The upper portion of the column 58 is insertedly received in the groove 54b formed in the shaft 54 in such a manner that it is movable in a vertical direction. A compression coil spring 60 is interposed between a ring 59 fitted around the outer circumference of the shaft 54 at its lower portion and the laterally extending wall of the holder 55. The guide roller 57 is thus rotated in face contact with the outer circumferential surface of the guide axis 33. When the guide roller 57 is inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of the guide axis 33, the shaft is rotated in the same direction. In the groove 54a formed in the upper end of the shaft 54 is sup ported an arm 61 which is in substantially perpendicular to the spool 24. Said arm 61 is further connected at its forward end with an arm 62 so that the entire length of the am in respect of a forward direction can be controlled. Said arm 62 is provided at its forward end with a horizontally projecting pin 63 on which a guide pulley 64 is rotatably mounted. The wire 10 is advanced to the spool 24 along through an arc portion of the guide pulley 64.

As shown in FIG. 2, vertically extending wall plates 65 are disposed on the upper side surfaces of the frame 51. A pair of compression coil springs 66 are interposed between said wall plates 65 and the corresponding side surfaces of the rear end of the arm 61, so that the arm 61 is biassed from the both sides thereofto be positioned substantially at the central portion of the frame 51. On the inner surfaces of the wall plates 65 are mounted adjustable stopper members 67 whose forward ends spacedly face to the side surfaces of the arm 61, with the result that the angular rotation of the arm 61 around the shaft 54 takes place only within a predetermined range.

A position control means 68 for the pulley will now be explained with reference to FIG. 2. A pair of supporting brackets 69 having a spacing therebetween are formed on the base 19 at a side opposite to said pair of supporting brackets 32 with respect to the spool 24 in a parallel relationship with the spindle 23 already described. Between said pair of supporting brackets 69 is bridged a rotatably rod 70 having on its surface a male screw 700. A slidable platform 71 is carried by the externally threaded rod 70 by meshing an internally threaded bore formed in the slidable platform 71 with the threaded rod 70. On the upper surface of the slidable platform are disposed a pair of spaced pins 72 each rotatably carrying a roller 73. The wire 10 is advanced toward the guide pulley 64 between the rollers 73. On one end of the threaded rod 70 is mounted a pulley 74 which is connected through a V-shaped belt 75 and a pulley 76 with a motor 77 whose rotation is reversible.

As shown in FIG. 2, a switching system for switching the motor 77 comprises switches A and B which are actuated by an actuating projection X located at the axially central portion of the bearing 52 and switches C, D and E which are actuated by another actuating projection Y located at the axially central part of the slidable platform 71.

When the guide pulley 64 is brought to a point spaced, for example, about 10 mm. from the flange 24a of the spool 64, the switch A is turned on by the projection X to rapidly rotate the motor 77, which in turn rotates the threaded rod 70 to rapidly move the slidable platform 71 to the right as ind cated in FIG. 2. The motor 77 is stopped by switch C being actuated by the projection Y, whereby the wire 10 is forcedly pushed by the left-hand roller 73 toward the right-hand side of FIG. 2. At this time, the guide pulley 64 is turned in the reverse inclined position with respect to the flange 24a, and the guiding assembly starts to travel to the left. Soon thereafter the switch A is turned on again by the projection X, this time for reverse rotation of the motor 77, which in turn rotates the threaded rod 70 in an opposite direction to cause the slidable platform 71 to rapidly move back to the left. Platform 71 is then stopped by switch D being actuated by the projection Y. When the guide pulley 64 reaches the vicinity of the flange 24b of the spool 64, the operation is similar to the above described case, but in reverse.

FIG. 6 illustrates a modification of the position control means 68 shown in FIG. 2. In the modification, a pair of magnets are mounted on the upper surface 510 of the frame 51 at positions facing the side surfaces of the rear end of the am 61. The arm 61 can be inclined similarly as in the previous embodiment by energizing the magnets 100 for a desired period of time and causing the magnets to attract the rear end of the arm 61, so that the guide pulley located at the forward end of the arm may be maintained in its position inclined in either side of the spool.

The operation of the fine wire winding device as described above will now be explained. The wire drawn, for example, from an annealing furnace is advanced by the roller 11 toward the spool side, guided by the guide pulley 64 after passing through the guide roller 12, dancer roller 15 and guide roller 12 and finally taken up by the spool 24. (See FIG. 1) The spool 24 is driven by the motor 31 in such a manner that the tension applied on the length of wire which is positioned between the spool and the guide roller 12 is controlled to be always of a constant value. In the initial stage, the wire 10 is pulled under its own tension, so that the guide pulley 64 and the guide roller 57 are substantially perpendicular to the spool 24 and do not move along the guide axisirrespective of the rotation of the latter. As the winding operation of wire progresses, the position of the guide pulley comes after a wire winding point P on the spool, as shown in FIG. 7A, with the result that the guide pulley is subjected to a lateral component of the force acting in the direction of an arrow b under the tension of the wire, and is gradually inclined with respect to an axis perpendicular to the axis of the spool. This inclination of the guide pulley necessarily causes the guide roller 57 to be inclined against the shaft 33 and hence to be moved in the direction of arrow b. As has been described, the inclination 0 of the guide roller is divided by a diameter of a wire, since the winding speed of the spool and that of the guide shaft are constant. Therefore, the guide pulley, when positioned at an intermediate portion of the spool, is moved in the direction of arrow b always under the condition shown in FIG. 7A to achieve the wire winding operation by the spool. The rollers 73 mounted on the slidable platform 71 are moved in disengagement with the wire and hence do not tend to change the direction of the tension of the wire.

The direction of the wire winding operation must be reversed when the wire is wound till it contacts with either flange of the spool. When the guide pulley is in the state as shown in FIG. 7A, the length of wire 10a for initiating the next succeeding reversed wire winding operation is, as shown in FIG. 8, subjected to a force acting in the direction of arrow c. This will result in coarse winding and not in dense and close winding. However, when the wire 10 approaches either of the flanges as close as say less than 10 mm., the slidable platform 71 is moved in the direction of arrow b thus permitting the roller 73 to apply on the wire a lateral tension acting in a reverse direction. (See FIG. 7B) The inclination of the guide pulley 64 is gradually reduced till it is in perpendicular to the spool, and thereafter it is inclined against the spool in a reverse direction. Thus, the winding operation is effected in a direction opposite to that of arrow b as shown by a dash-and-- dot line in FIG. 7B, through a similar process as described above. The winding operation is made in a reverse direction at the left side flange 24b of the spool, to orderly wind wire on the spool.

EXAMPLE 1 Wire diameter: d 0.8 mm.

The angle 0 of swing of guide roller: 0 40' The number of rotation N of spool: N 60 rpm. Under the conditions given above, from equation 4,

r.p.m.

thus, 60

EXAMPLE 2 By setting 1.2

and setting d, N and D to have the same values as in example 1, the following equation holds from equation'5 1. A fine wire winding device comprising:

means for holding a spool (24);

a wire transfer means including a feed roller 11) for feeding a wire to the spool:

actuating source (18) for rotating the spool for winding the wire on the spool;

means interposed between said feeding roller and the spool- (60) and movable in the axial direction thereof and rotatable in coaxial relationship with said shaft;

a roller (57) rotatably supported on said holder (55) and which is rotated within the same plane as that of said guide pulley (64);

a guide shaft' (33) disposed in parallel with the axis of the spool and rotatably coupled to said spool actuating source, said guide shaft (33) being in engagement with the outer circumferential surface of said roller to impart rotation to said roller;

said guide means guiding said guide pulley to reciprocatingly follow a wire winding point with a distance between said guide pulley and said winding point, said distance being in a direction parallel to that of advancement of wire winding; and

position control means for controlling the movement of said guide pulley when the wire approaches the ends of the spool.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which said means for applying a constant tension on the wire comprises a dancer pulley (15) for applying a weight on the wire to generate a tension, means (16) for detecting a movement representing. a variation of the position of the dancer pulley, and a control means (17) coupled to said detecting means for controlling said actuating source (18) so as to reduce the difference between the feeding speed and winding speed.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a gearless speed control means (36) coupling said guide shaft (33) to said actuating source '(18).

4. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which saidposition control means comprises a pair of wire supporting members movably disposedin parallel with the axis of the spool and which grip the wire at the opposite side of the spool with the center of the guide pulley, an actuating means for moving said pair of wire supporting members thereby to move the wire to produce a-force acting in a direction lateral to that of advancement of the wire.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which said position control means for said guide means includes a pair of spaced mag- 

1. A fine wire winding device comprising: means for holding a spool (24); a wire transfer means including a feed roller (11) for feeding a wire to the spool: actuating source (18) for rotating the spool for winding the wire on the spool; means interposed between said feeding roller and the spool for applying a constant tension on the wire; guide means (13) including: a frame (51) movable in parallel with the axis of the spool; a shaft (54) rotatably supported by said frame (51) and having an arm (61, 62) projecting therefrom; a guide pulley (64) for guiding the wire to the spool, said guide pulley (64) being supported by said arm (61, 62) and rotatably supported by said shaft (54) within a plane intersecting the axis of said shaft; a holder (55) coupled to said shaft (54) through a spring (60) and movable in the axial direction thereof and rotatable in coaxial relationship with said shaft; a roller (57) rotatably supported on said holder (55) and which is rotated within the same plane as that of said guide pulley (64); a guide shaft (33) disposed in parallel with the axis of the spool and rotatably coupled to said spool actuating source, said guide shaft (33) being in engagement with the outer circumferential surface of said roller to impart rotation to said roller; said guide means guiding said guide pulley to reciprocatingly follow a wire winding point with a distance between said guide pulley and said winding point, said distance being in a direction parallel to that of advancement of wire winding; and position control means for controlling the movement of said guide pulley when the wire approaches the ends of the spool.
 2. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which said means for applying a constant tension on the wire comprises a dancer pulley (15) for applying a weight on the wire to generate A tension, means (16) for detecting a movement representing a variation of the position of the dancer pulley, and a control means (17) coupled to said detecting means for controlling said actuating source (18) so as to reduce the difference between the feeding speed and winding speed.
 3. A device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a gearless speed control means (36) coupling said guide shaft (33) to said actuating source (18).
 4. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which said position control means comprises a pair of wire supporting members movably disposed in parallel with the axis of the spool and which grip the wire at the opposite side of the spool with the center of the guide pulley, an actuating means for moving said pair of wire supporting members thereby to move the wire to produce a force acting in a direction lateral to that of advancement of the wire.
 5. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which said position control means for said guide means includes a pair of spaced magnets located on either side of one end of the arm which supports the guide pulley at the other end. 